“My bet is that BP will finally go bankrupt from the tort liability and the environmental liability,” she said. “Hypothetically, a bluefin tuna farmer in the Mediterranean could end up with a claim against BP.”

— Florida State University environmental law professor Robin Kundis... More

A new Florida State University study is investigating how quickly the Deepwater Horizon oil carried into Gulf of Mexico beach sands is being degraded by the sands’ natural microbial communities, and whether native oil-eating bacteria that wash ashore with the crude are helping or hindering that process.

What oceanography... More

In some parts of the Florida Panhandle, coastal communities say they’re seeing 80 percent cancellation rates for vacation rentals because of oil and tar balls washing up the beaches from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Discussing the summer resort season that wasn’t is Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor of Service... More

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 2,000 communities, from suburbs to cities.”

— Florida State University oceanography Professor Ian R. MacDonald, quoted in The New York Times on June 22, 2010, about the possible... More

Florida State University doctoral student J.T. Cox provided the following account of a recent research cruise that several FSU students took part in:

"Members of the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State, together with marine personnel from the Florida Institute of Oceanography, spent five days... More

A Florida State University oceanographer is pointing out another environmental threat from the Gulf oil spill that has been little discussed until now: the potential for tons of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to make its way into the Earth’s atmosphere, thereby increasing the rate of global warming.

Jeff Chanton is the... More

As the BP oil spill inexorably evolves into the world’s worst environmental disaster, Florida State University oceanographer Ian MacDonald warns that the oil could wash up on European shores before the end of summer.

“It’s entirely possible,” MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State, said in an interview... More

"Once you have oil spewing out of the bottom of the floor of the ocean, anything can occur," said Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor in Services Management in FSU's Dedman School of Hospitality, during a June 3 radio interview... More

"The source of reliable information on this has not been the government," said biological oceanographer Ian MacDonald, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at FSU, in a June 3 TIME article... More

Florida State University marine biologist David L. Kimbro will lead scientists from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Maine in a massive effort to study the health and future of the nation’s natural oyster reefs in 12 estuaries spanning 1,000 miles of Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico... More